14-Year-Old Athena Kovacs Downs Mexican Record In Women’s 50 Fly

7TH FINA WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019

• 50-Meter Course
• Duna Arena, Budapest (Hungary)
• Pool swimming: Tuesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 25, 2019
• Heats 9:30am GMT+2 (3:30 am EDT / 12:30 am PDT)/ Semifinals and Finals 5:30pm GMT+2 (11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT)
• Meet site
• Entries book
• FinaTV Live Stream (subscription required)
• Live results

14-year-old Athena Kovacs rocked a new Mexican National Record while competing in the women’s 50m fly semi-final of the 2019 World Junor Championships.

After claiming the 9th fastest time of the morning heats in 27.07, the teen got under the 27-second barrier for the first time of her young career, hitting the wall in a time of 26.78 in tonight’s semi-final. That rendered Kovacs as the 7th-seeded swimmer headed into tomorrow night’s final and it also sliced .19 off of the previous Mexican National Record of 26.97 set by Lilianna Ibanez back at the 2016 edition of Mexican Nationals.

Kovacs, who competes for Eagle Aquatics stateside, entered these Championships with a personal best of 27.23, a time she earned while competing at this year’s Clovis stop of the TYR Pro Swim Series.

We’ll see if she has more in the tank for tomorrow night’s final, as she chases leader Anastasiya Shkurdai of Belarus, who clocked the fastest semi swim of 25.85.